200+ Staff | 4,000+ Clients | 100,000+ Users

simPRO Software is part of the simPRO Group, founded in 2002 by Stephen
Bradshaw and Vaughan McKillop.

When simPRO Software founders Steve Bradshaw and Vaughan McKillop
were building the bones of simPRO in Steve’s converted garage 14 years ago, they had no idea
they’d begun a journey that would eventually help thousands of businesses worldwide.

Their passion – for designing software to make running a trade business easier, and
ultimately for helping the people using simPRO to succeed – transformed simPRO from a small
startup to a global business.

Long hours, gaming, Steve’s garage… and the passion that started it all

With a long history of electrical contracting, Steve Bradshaw had learned the hard way how
difficult a trade business could become as it grew.

‘Without the right systems to test and measure, a bigger business would lose visibility and
you’d quickly end up working very long hours with very little return,’ Steve said.

In 2002, he was co-owner of a small electrical contracting business in Brisbane,
Australia.

‘We only had three or four staff, and while my partner wanted to expand the business, if we
were any bigger than that we’d start to lose control,’ Steve said.

‘I realised that what electrical and other trade businesses really needed was systemisation
and automation. We needed software to help us keep visibility and manageability, and many,
many other trade businesses were in the same position.’

Around that time, Steve’s cousin introduced him to Vaughan McKillop, who was studying
software engineering at Griffith University. Vaughan left his job delivering pizza to work
part-time for Steve, doing data entry for the electrical business in his converted
garage.

However, Vaughan’s real passion was software.

‘My dad worked for NEC when I was growing up, so he was always bringing home office computers
they didn’t need any more,’ Vaughan said.

‘Some of my school friends had gaming systems like the old Commodore 64, but my dad said a
computer is not only for playing games on, it is for creating games and other applications
on – so if I wanted to play a game, I’d have to learn to write one myself.

"So I did! From that point on, I knew I wanted to design software."

A tool to help businesses grow

One day, Steve asked Vaughan to create a website for his electrical contracting business.

Vaughan explained to Steve that his strengths actually lay in writing software, rather than
web design… and with that, the seed was planted.

‘I didn’t want other people to have to go through the heartache of becoming a slave to their
business. I saw an opportunity for Vaughan and I to try to create a solution together,’
Steve said.

Using the web-based PHP and MySQL languages Vaughan was familiar with, they began creating
the first, cloud-based iteration of simPRO – starting with job lists, then working on a
scheduling tool for allocating time and technicians.

As the software grew, they realised they’d created a tool that could help other businesses,
and began sharing it with other electrical contractors to test its usefulness, and,
eventually, selling it to them.

‘Pretty soon we started getting interest from other trade contractors, like plumbers, who
heard their mates were having success with simPRO and wanted to try it out.’

Customer feedback key to success

Since simPRO Software’s humble beginnings, customer input and feedback has been key.

‘Everything we did was based on what our customers needed for their businesses,’ Vaughan
said.

‘We didn’t create the software based on what we thought our customers needed – we made sure
we talked to and listened to customers, through our chat system, our online forum, through
our feature request forum, to build the features they actually needed, and to support
customers as much as we could.’

Steve said without the early adopters of simPRO, the company wouldn’t have been able to grow
as much as it has.

‘The first couple hundred businesses that took on simPRO willingly gave us their ideas so we
could create an even better software solution,’ he said.

The business began to slowly gain momentum, and soon they were adding new team members to
help sustain and grow the software.

‘We’ve expanded the sorts of solutions we offer, and expanded where we offer them. We’ve
grown out of Australia into New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and now the United States – and
our journey’s only just beginning.’